Touch pad systems that enable a user to input information to a processor by moving an object relative to a touch pad surface are known. Typically, touch pads may be implemented in computing applications such as PDA's and computers, and may also be found in electronic displays in a wide variety of applications such as teller machines, gaming machines, automotive navigation systems, restaurant management systems, grocery store checkout lines, gas pumps, information kiosks, and hand-held data organizers, to name a few.
However, conventional touch pad systems may be bulky, and may increase an overall size of a device to which it may be attached. Additionally, conventional touch pads may not provide adequate ruggedness to endure standard use conditions in some devices, such as personal mobile devices like radio telephones, PDA's, and/or other personal mobile devices. For example, mobile devices may experience chemical exposure, moisture, mechanical stress such as shock impacts, and/or other stresses or exposures.
In general, the addition of a typical touch pad to a conventional flat panel display, and/or other conventional displays, may also result in degradation of display performance. For example, power consumption, resolution, contrast, view angle, colour gamut, grey scale, and/or brightness of a conventional display may be degraded by the addition of a typical touch pad.
For example, these and other drawbacks may be associated with optical touch pads that implement light emitting styluses, optical touch pads that implement frustrated internal resistance supplied to the optical touch pad by a dedicated light source, optical touch pads that implement coordination with the rasterization of a CRT display to determine positional information related to an object, and optical touch pads that utilize an imaging device that images the surface of the optical touch pad.
Thus, there remains a need for a touch pad that addresses these and other drawbacks associated with conventional touch pad systems.